Hundreds gather at Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery near Syracuse to salute the defenders

Michelle Gabel/The Post-StandardRaegan Reed, 5, of Syracuse, waters the grave of her grandfather, Joseph Fox, who served in the Army during World War II, after the Memorial Day service at the Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Sunday. She was at the cemetery with her mom, Nancy Fox-Reed, of Syracuse, and her grandmother, Marjorie Fox, of East Syracuse.

Syracuse, NY -- Where thousands lie, hundreds came. And remembered.

Under blue skies, above alabaster stone, across sweeping green fields, the red, white and blue unfurled. Before picnics, pools and parties, there were tributes, tears and “Taps.”

“It’s kind of tough,” Vietnam War veteran Ken Romancik of the Valley section of Syracuse said in a measured tone. “I have a lot of fellow military that got killed in the war. This is just my way of paying tribute to them. And to let them know I will be with them here.”

For many, the tribute began with the hour-long event and ended with a graveside visit with a loved one lost.

“They died for us. They continue to die for us,” U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle said of the veterans and those who are still serving in the military.

The hallowed ground that became the county’s final resting place for its veterans started with one burial 25 years ago. More than 3,000 are buried in the Onondaga Hill meadows.

“It’s a beautiful day and I’m glad I’m here,” said Kayann Taylor, a veteran of Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services, or WAVES, a World War II-era division of the Navy made up entirely of women.
The sun baked the earth and the gathered sought shade. As the U.S. colors were ceremoniously raised on the main flagpole, a breeze snapped the flag to life, leaves on the nearby trees seemed to salute and rope striking aluminum rang a full measure.

Michelle Gabel/The Post-StandardFrom left, World War II veterans Angelo Bordonaro, of Syracuse, who served in the U.S. Army, and Doug Storey, who served in the Navy, are shown at the Memorial Day service Sunday at Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

“It’s a day to remember,” said keynote speaker John Roseberry of the county Veterans Service Agency as he emotionally remembered a childhood friend killed in action during the Vietnam War.

But those who have lost remember every day, Roseberry noted: Seeing empty spaces at the dinner table, at smaller Thanksgiving gatherings.

Still, said Roseberry, without the military, the nation would be “a far more oppressive and darker place.”

In the steady light of the noontime sun, some of the gathered traced the names on gravestones, lay flowers and communicated with the living and the lost.

John and Wendy Heretyk of Oswego visited the final resting place of John Sherwood, Wendy’s father.

They tended a tree they planted last year that will one day shade the grave marker of the World War II veteran.

“He grew up not far from here,” said Wendy Heretyk of her father. “On Sherwood Farms.”

Close enough that “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” played this morning likely carried there from Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery.